Church Selects First Woman President

By Pauline J. Chang, Christian Post Reporter
Tuesday, July 26, 2005

The Disciples of Christ elected the Rev. Sharon E. Watkins as its new president, marking the first time a woman was chosen to lead a major U.S. Protestant denomination.

Watkins was elected today as General Minister and President of the Disciples of Christ, a liberal mainline denomination also known as the Christian Church, during a General Assembly meeting in Portland, Oregon. More than 3,000 representatives to the annual gathering gave “a resounding affirmative vote,” according to the denomination’s news release.

“Today is not about me,” said Watkins, currently senior minister at Disciples Christian Church in Bartlesville, Okla. “It’s about all of us. We must join together and let God work with us and through us…and must share that love with others.”

The Christian Church is known for “informality, openness, individualism and diversity,” according to the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches. The Disciples also “claim no official doctrine of dogma.” The denomination reportedly has 770,000 members across the nation.

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